1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coating liquid for a recording layer, and a recording medium having a recording layer formed with such a coating liquid, such as an ink jet recording medium, a thermal recording medium, a pressure-sensitive recording medium, or a thermal transfer recording medium, and more particularly to a recording medium having an ink receptive layer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Along with the recent rapid progress of the information industry, various information processing systems have been developed, and recording methods and apparatuses suitable for such information processing systems have also been developed and brought into practical use. Among the aforementioned recording methods, the ink jet recording method is widely utilized not only in offices but also in homes, owing to advantages such as the ability to record on various recording media, hardware (devices) is relatively inexpensive, and inkjet recording devices are compact and quiet.
Also responding to a recent increase in the resolution available with ink jet printers, various recording media have been developed to provide, for example, a high quality photo-like recording. For attaining high product value, the recording medium is required to have, in addition to an excellent ink absorbing property, satisfactory image storage stability after recording, that is, absence of image fading even with prolonged storage and an absence of any deterioration in image quality caused by blotting.
As a recording medium with an increased ink absorption, an ink jet recording sheet provided with an ink receptive layer having a three-dimensional structure with a high pore rate, formed with fine inorganic pigment particles such as fine silica particles and a water-soluble resin, is disclosed for example in JP-A Nos. 10-203006, 10-217601, 11-20306, 2000-309157, and 2000-211235 and is considered capable of forming an image of high resolution.
However, the fine inorganic pigment particles, such as the aforementioned fine silica particles, generally are extremely fine particles, and therefore have a strong interaction among themselves resulting in high viscosity and present difficulty in handling when the fine inorganic pigment particles are mixed in a dispersion medium such as water.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the aforementioned drawbacks. The present invention provides a coating liquid for a recording layer, having a low viscosity and therefore an excellent handling and also having high color density, high luster and a satisfactory ink offset resistance in an image formation, and also provides a recording medium having a recording layer made with such a coating liquid.